Novamene: A new class of carbon allotropes

Abstract

We announce a new class of carbon allotropes. The basis of this new classification resides on the concept of combining hexagonal diamond (sp3 bonded carbon − lonsdaleite) and ring carbon (sp2 bonded carbon − graphene). Since hexagonal diamond acts as an insulator and sp2 bonded rings act as conductors, these predicted materials have potential applications for transistors and other electronic components. We describe the structure of a proposed series of carbon allotropes, novamene, and carry out a detailed computational analysis of the structural and electronic properties of the simplest compound in this class: the single-ring novamene. In addition, we suggest how hundreds of different allotropes of carbon could be constructed within this class